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March 01, 2005

Black Hispanics struggle for their racial identity

February 13, 2005By Bruno DiazThe pause and the silence at the other end of the line were eloquent: "Black Hispanics?"

Yes, black Hispanics.

"Well, the NAACP works for the benefit of all minorities, regardless of race" dutifully stated Yolanda Smith, executive director for the Houston branch of the decades-old civil rights association.

Her befuddlement is one many Americans share, whenever confronted with a reality that defies Hollywood-style stereotypes: Hispanics come in all colors and shapes. There are Asian Hispanics, white Hispanics, black Hispanics and even Latino Hispanics, as roughly 20 million people defined themselves, puzzled by the "race question" in the 2000 U.S. census.

But for the roughly 1 million black Hispanics who live in America, the question of their racial identity is one that pops up continuously along their lives, and not only once every 10 years during censuses.

"When people realized that my accent didn't match my face, they asked me where I was from. And when I told them that I was from the Dominican Republic, and that I spoke Spanish -- therefore my accent -- I always got this 'wow!-that-is-weird!' kind of look" recalled Eddy Bello, an electrical engineer who is now the manager of his wife's pediatric clinic in Odessa.

Back in the Dominican Republic, Bello's African heritage was a cultural undertone rather than a racial profile. It surfaced here and there, in the beat of merengue -- a very popular Caribbean genre -- in the spices of the country's most typical foods, in its literature, and, yes, in the white-on-black smiles of friends and relatives.

Having been born in New York to a Puerto Rican family, Ronald Flecha is, at the same time, Hispanic and black. Since the African heritage is especially strong in the Caribbean, Flecha thought that his genes and his ancestry would save him from being discriminated by other blacks. But he was wrong.

"When I was in the Army's basic training, back in 1968, I got caught in the middle of two discriminatory feelings. I was chastised by both ends of the spectrum: the African Americans were not agreeable with me, and the anglo Americans weren't either. There was a kind of two-way racism in there."

For both men, and for many black Hispanics in America, a mixed heritage often becomes a statement with an unexpected offshoot: blackness weighs more.

"Whether Hispanics choose to identify their race as white, Hispanic or black is not a matter of purely personal preference -- it reflects the social position of group members" John Logan concluded in a 2003 study by the Lewis Mumford Center at Albany University. "This is most evident in the case of the smallest group, black Hispanics, whose individual characteristics such as income and unemployment make them in many ways more similar to non-Hispanic blacks than to other Hispanic groups," concluded the study.

As blacks, black Hispanics tend to suffer higher poverty rates than
other Hispanic subgroups. Put in perspective, their struggle resembles
closely that of blacks.

It also illustrates how difficult it is to escape from racial
predeterminations, even for those individuals for whom the race factor
was never part of their identity.

But both Bello and Flecha shrug off the racial classifications and all
its implications with one big smile. "Hispanics are not a race but
members of a group with a common cultural background. To put all of us
in the same bag is just ridiculous."

Rita Cuevas, a nun at Lady Guadalupe Catholic Church in Midland, and another Hispanic stereotype shredder, agrees with them.

As most Philippines, Sister Rita looks Asian but has a heavy Hispanic
heritage, an inescapable byproduct of 350 years of Spaniards'
colonialism.

"Spaniards left us many things that are now part of our identity: we
are Catholics, we cook our seafood Mediterranean-style, our language is
full of Spanish words and we are very 'family people,'" she said. But
Philippines also owe vast areas of their identity pool to the Chinese
influence, which puts them in the same place as black Hispanics:
somewhere in the middle of two heritages.

15 Comments

I really appreciate this article. Countless times I have been at looked strangly or asked question after question after I reveal my heritage. I like that the complexity of race and culture is addressed. Thank you!

.. but actually, now that I think about it more, I kind of wish the article had done a better job. Growing up I felt "biracial" at times (even though both my parents are Afro-Cuban and grew up in the same neighborhood) as if being Black and and Latino were these two contradictory seperate worlds. But they aren't really.

African populations have a huge presence in Latin America to the point where even Mexico has "black" regions like Verracruz and there are popular phrases like "el que no tiene de Congo, tiene de Carabali" or "el que no tiene de Dinga tiene de Mandinga". In the early colonial period, the countries which imported the most number of slaves were Mexico and Peru. At one point, even Buenos Aires had a huge Black population.

In retrospect, the article could have (and I think should have) gone alot further in pointing out the black presence in Latin America. Instead, the article made it seem like black hispanics are like centaurs or unicorns or something.

Thanks for sharing this article as a mother of 3 children they always ask about their heritage, why their hair is so curley or their skin such a lovely brown. They are Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran and Hawaiian Portugese and Spanish so you see the cultural complexity though hard to explain at times is beautiful in and of itself.

I came across this other link that I thought might interest some of your readers
http://www.afromexico.org/index.html

Thank you so much. As the Americans say, you hit the nail right on the head. Soy guatemalteco y sufro mucho en los estados unidos. Being slightly darker than whites but lighter than most African-Americans has placed me in a peculiar dilemma. I identify with people of color; however, not all people of color identify with me. I simply state that I am Hispanic and this seems to satisfy and divide. I know that I have Indian, Spanish and African ancestry, too. Somehow, other people of African ancestry do not regard me as one of their own. This is a bizarre world in which we live...

I feel for those that are Afro-latino and don't fit in the rigid molds of the American paradigm. Many of us that are mixed have other ways of identifying ourselves.
One place to share your stories is at this website.
http://afrolatino.org/forum/index.php

Beacuse, for years, I have been struggling with the racial idenity crisis that I have been dealing with. When, I am with my afro-american freinds, and I talk spanish at a resturaunt, or, if I decide to talk to some one that does not knows english, it seems as though I am getting scorned at because I am dark, and I dont have a spanish accent when I speak english. At jobs, schools that I have attended and sometimes even, churches I get this look like How where and who!? Thank you for the clarity

Yes i can relate to you guys. I am half african american and colombian. It just makes me angry when i see the classroom roster sheet and on ethinicity it classifys me as african american. yes i am african american but its like they dont see the other side of my race.